Something like what my feet look like
I was hoping to post my own actual x-ray here, but the medical records department hasn’t gotten back to me yet. I went to a podiatrist on Tuesday, and they took x-rays of my feet and told me what i pretty much already knew: that the only solution to my bunion problem is surgery. The pain went away as soon as i’d made my appointment, however, so i don’t plan to have surgery until it becomes a chronic issue.
I’ve started back up with running and i’ve been set back a little for not running in three weeks, which is only a little disappointing since the weather has been cold and crappy in that time anyway. Now, hopefully, spring is here to stay and i’ll be taking some real strides in getting back up to running three+ miles at a go.
In other news: VEISHEA is this weekend – let’s hope it’s not as rainy and cold as it was last year. The painting class is almost over and i have a long way to go on my last painting. I’m not loving it quite as much as i’d hoped i would.
I’m more than halfway through The God Delusion and i absolutely loved the first three chapters. The fourth chapter is the central argument of the book, and it goes something like this: If you believe that the complexity of the things found in nature implies that there had to have been an intelligent designer, then you must also ask ‘who designed that designer,’ because such a designer would necessarily have to have been an even more complex entity. I think it makes perfect sense, but the whole idea of God is metaphysical, magical – it has nothing to do with reason, and that’s exactly why – unfortunately – it can’t really be argued with.
I think there are plenty of great arguments for Atheism, and all of them are thoroughly covered in the book, i’m just not sure why Dawkins chose this one as his cornerstone. I’m reading currently about why morality and ‘goodness’ are inherent in human understanding and not reliant upon religious convictions, and that’s one point i really wish more religious people could understand. That, along with why the atheistic life is just as meaningful and worth living as one dictated by religion.
Sorry about this post going completely from one topic to another. These are just the things that have been rolling around in my head lately, i guess.
Friday, April 17th, 2009 1:57 pm • life, religion, running
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April 24th, 2009 at 3:14 pm
“Religion” can go, and has often gone, terribly wrong. Faith is a good thing to have. I tend to agree with whoever it was who said that it is better to have faith in something beyond yourself and be wrong than it is to think there is nothing beyond yourself, and be wrong.
Having faith, to me, is like turning on a radio. The waves are out there, but you absolutely cannot hear them until you turn the receiver on. So if you think there’s nothing there, for you, there isn’t. But the minute you turn the receiver on, you tap into a power I can’t explain. Call it The Force if you want to.
That author is anthropomorphizing the diety concept; casting it in the image of man; setting up a ‘straw man’ argument, and then defeating it.
Only MAN says the power is like man. We do that so we can TRY to understand it. Try is all we can do. It is like a mite trying to understand a person. Can’t be done. Occasionally throughout history there have been exemplary lives which claim to point the way to–whatever it is we should look up to.
There is just as much badness in human nature as goodness. Yin and Yang, so to speak. That is why anything–and everything–that brings out and emphasizes the good side, helps.